I'm not ashamed to say that I take Wellbutrin for anti-anxiety. It's one of the best drugs I've taken. Wellbutrin 300mg, for those that don't know, has been available as generic for a long time. I don't know why the other doses aren't.

My health care company has a teired prescription structure. Different "classes" of medications are at different prices. Regardless of generic or brand, I still pay the same amount for Wellbutrion.

I think the problem is going to be more on the side of health care companies. I called them up one day and asked them why they don't offer an incentive for folks to get generic. They just said it's because it's teired.

So I purposely get brand name. It's sad...

You guys don't understand the complex nature of this business. A big part of the reason why drugs in the U.S. are more expensive than in other countries is because other countries can negotiate low prices directly with drug companies. The U.S. doesn't/won't, so the free market determines price. Add to that the fact that for every drug that successfully enters the market, there are thousands that fail. Quite simply, since a company doesn't know when - or even if - the next big drug will come along, it has to maximize profits from their current portfolio. Whether or not this practice is moral is up to you to decide. But remember, most drug company profits go directly back into R&D for new compounds. Less profit = less R&D and fewer drugs in the pipeline.

GlaxoSmithKline : sales = £22.7 billion
net profit for 2007 = £7.8 billion

Which equals to 33% NET profit.

I'm on the generic XL - I haven't really noticed a difference. Of course, being cheered by the money I save getting it generic may help balance the difference. I'm also a small person, and medications effect me a lot, so it may be that the generic is sufficient for me.

There is a 300mg version of the XL available. The 150mg Xl version, which is much more widely used, has never been released. Has to make you wonder why only 1 strngth is available.

The lawsuit was filed by direct purchasers of Wellbutrin; which I assume means health insurer formularies, hospitals, etc. Where that leaves the individual consumer, I have no idea. And it's not as if consumers don't directly bear the costs too. If your Rx copays are based on a percentage of the cost, you're paying for it. Also, the name brand/generic difference is just enormous sometimes. I take one medication that went from $90/month to $8/month when it switched to generic. So there is a lot of money at stake.

Wait, GSK has been ripping me off for years? That's so depressing...

From what I see, it seems like most class actions get settled rather than actually go on trial... with the customers losing out big time.

I agree that pharmaceutical companies want to protect their product (read: investment) at all costs, I wouldn't use a term like "evil" to describe them. From the time that a compound is researched to the time it hits the market, it takes 15 years and $900 MILLION. That's why they do stuff like this, to recoup that money and to further along R&D on other compounds. I'm not an apologist for pharm companies, but I can see both sides of the argument. And no matter how you slice it, without their product, many people's lives would be worse off.

They were merely given a slap on the hand for it.

Also, before I was aware of being able to get it for free, I remember running into the problem of not being able to get generic Wellbutrin in the correct dosage from Wal-Mart with the $4 generics thing (I think I was on 150mg at the time). Jerks.

Pharmacuetical companies are among the suckiest, most evil corrupt corporations in america.

Their are interest not in making patients well, but with piling as many pills into our hands as they possibly can.